The King and His Queen
by xLilim
Summary: A collection of unrelated Empress specials written for all occasions. KouenOC
1. Love Me Not

This is one of five one-shots written as part of a Holiday Specials incentive that is severely lacking due to my busy school schedule. Normally, these specials are wordpress-only, but I feel that not many know about them and given that I haven't updated for several weeks, I thought it would be a good idea to bring them over for everyone that hasn't read them to get a chance to do so.

Do consider these AU despite occurring in the same universe as the stories from which they are derived. I generally like to consider a lot of these "what if" scenarios, but a lot of them can fit within the stories (however, I can't add them for craft reasons).

I have also chosen to post them separately from the related stories because it would be too strange to have a sudden break in between events, so I hope you don't mind this.

That said, I hope you enjoy reading them (or this). Also, future specials will be posted as follow-up chapters to their respective entries.

* * *

 **Story** : Empress

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Kouen|Asta

 **Word Count** : 3330

 **Rating** : T

 **Summary** : Something is definitely wrong with his wife; Kouen just wished he knew what that was.

 **Author's Comment** : I feel that I create many characters that give me so much secondhand embarrassment. I guess I should say spoiler for a future pairing? Whoops, but it's pretty background.

Playing the "s/he loves me or s/he loves me not" game as a kid ruined me. I thought Asta being a giant dork would take it too far and thought this was a good idea.

 _ **Originally posted on February 14, 2015. Written as a Valentine's Day special.**_

* * *

 **Love Me Not** | IO ASTA and REN KOUEN

{ **i** }

Hua took Asta on a walk around the vast flower gardens surrounding Io Castle. Her attendant dedicated hours to several acres of daisies, making sure they were properly maintained and watered on a regular basis. They were her pride and joy.

The flowers were beautiful, brown buttons surrounded by pure white petals facing towards the morning sun.

"I thought I could make a bouquet for Carina," said Hua with a timid smile, "but I know she doesn't like flowers."

Asta slapped her across the back, startling her. "Carina will love anything from you, so stop worrying about it so much."

"Do you really think so?" asked Hua nervously.

"I have known Carina half her life, you can trust me when I say that she'll definitely appreciate whatever gift you bring her," replied Asta, proud of her knowledge. "I bet you can make a gift out of a smelly old shoe and she will appreciate the thought that went into it. Seriously, Hua, Carina is the least picky person in the world."

Hua smiled gratefully. The raven-haired attendant soon redirected her attention to the flowers, explaining in detail all the care that went into their maintenance at Asta's inquiry before the two went on their separate ways. Hua went off to pick daisies to make a small bouquet for Carina while Asta went running through the field, enjoying the feel of the grass beneath her bare feet and the caress of the flowers against her legs.

Asta hunted Hua down after she exhausted herself running up and down the hills, succeeding in falling once and earning a nasty scrape on her chin that had bled quite a bit. She discovered Hua crouched down picking flower petals from a daisy while muttering beneath her breath. Curious as to what she was saying, Asta approaching with the stealth of a cat, managing the move close enough to overhead her.

"She loves me"—a flower petal came off—"she loves me not"—another followed. Hua continued the little chant, picking off one petal as she said each phrase until she came down to the last one, her face lighting up with her smile as she said, "She loves me."

Hua felt her presence, rather she noticed her shadow cast over her body, and jerked around after tossing the flower out of sight. Her cheeks were bright red. "Your highness!"

"What were you doing?" asked Asta excitedly. "With the flower?"

"It's just a silly game," Hua explained, embarrassed.

"A game? Really?"

"It's silly."

"Tell me about it." Asta crouched down beside her. "What do you do?"

Hua cleared her throat and took a deep breath. "Well, you take a flower and think about the person you love, you pick off a petal alternating between the phrases s/ _he loves me_ and _s/he loves me not_ to see if your feelings are mutual. The last petal is supposed to symbolize the truth. Of course, you shouldn't take these too serious—"

Asta pulled a daisy from the earth. "I want to try it."

"Ah, but you are very loved by Prince Kouen, you don't need to do that?"

She scoffed. "I want all the validation I can get."

"But this isn't—"

Asta was no longer listening to Hua. She was picking off the daisy's petals, alternating excitedly between the phrases "he loves me" and "he loves me not," until she made it to the last petal, picking it off as she said, "He loves me… _not_?"

She turned to Hua quizzically. "Hua? What is this? This flower lied to me!" She dramatically threw the remains of the flower to the ground and reached for another. "I'm trying it again!"

"Uhm, your—"

"He loves me," Asta chanted, pulling off a petal. "He loves me not."

After two minutes, she reached the final petal and with a devastated expression, uttered the hateful words, "He loves me _not_."

Despite, Hua's attempts to interrupt her sudden urge to try the game again, Asta decided that she was doing it all wrong. "I keep starting with _he loves me_ , so I should just switch it to _he loves me not_."

"No, that's not how it—"

"He loves me not," Asta began, determined. "He loves me."

But as she reached the last petal, her devastation doubled when it landed on "he loves me not" a third time. Unable to give up, she took another daisy, then another, then another, and another, each one resulted in the same unwanted response.

"Hua!" cried Asta, clinging to her attendant's arm. "What if it's true? What if he doesn't love me at all? What if I'm imagining it all?" She couldn't imagine a world without the confidence that her husband truly loved her. They might not have been working out in the beginning, but things were different now. They were a real marriage now…or so she thought? What if it was all one-sided? She gasped, feeling tears spring into her eyes. "What if he loves his concubine? Hua, please tell me he isn't in love with his concubine! Which one is it? She's probably the prettiest one—"

"He doesn't have a concubine, your highness. He's extremely loyal to—"

Asta started to cry both loudly and inelegantly. "You know he's never even said he loves me!" She sobbed, wiping her tears on the sleeves of her silk robes. "I love him so much and I tell him every day, but he never says anything back! It is one-sided! I'm the only one feeling this way! What am I going to do? I gave him my kingdom! I gave him my love! I gave him _my_ body! He took _my_ body, Hua!"

Hua tried to reason with her, though she looked uncomfortable about the subject of their conversation. "But, he truly—"

Asta cried harder, interrupting her attendant, and hugged her knees to her chest, burying her face atop them.

"But princess—"

"He doesn't love me!" she blubbered. She heard her attendant sigh as she took a seat beside her. "Why doesn't he love me?"

{ **ii** }

She was doing it again.

Kouen turned around as his wife ducked behind the wall with a squeak. Koumei reached his side as he redirected his eyes forward.

"You are aware your wife is following you," Koumei commented.

"Ignore her. She'll grow tired of it eventually."

Something was bothering her. That alone was evident in her behavior. She didn't resort to such extremities unless it was grave, so while he ignored his wife's shenanigans, Kouen tried to recall their entire day yesterday. Once he figured out the reason influencing her actions, he could put an end to it, but as far as he could remember, yesterday had been pleasant. Had he done something to upset her? If so, what? What did he do or say that upset her?

Kouen put the thought out of his mind. Koumei wouldn't be in Ione long, so he needed to handle their business promptly. He would take care of his wife once he and his brother were through talking.

However, none of that stopped Asta from tailing him around castle. She believed herself quite sneaky, he knew, but she was not the least bit discreet. If she truly put her mind into her actions, she would have viewed it the same as hunting and it would have given her an edge.

After seeing his brother off for the afternoon, he made sure to catch Asta in the act. He tricked her when he made a sudden turn down a hallway and waited for her to appear. She took a right turn sharply, coming to an abrupt halt when she realized he was standing in front of her.

She gaped at him, brilliant blue eyes widened in astonishment.

"What are you doing, Asta?"

Her freckled cheeks colored. "W-Walking."

"Alone? That is unlike you."

She visibly swallowed, tiny beads of nervous sweat appeared on her brow. "I-I wanted to talk about… _dinner_ , yes, dinner," she stammered. "Will Koumei be joining us for dinner?"

"No."

"Okay. I will tell the cooks."

Very awkwardly, Asta extricated herself from that hallway and ran off. She looked over her shoulder multiple times before she disappeared down the nearest flight of stairs.

He expelled a breath and continued to the castle's private library. He expected Asta to follow him there. After entering and taking his seat on the upper floor, he decided to give her fifteen minutes before he started reading.

Asta surprised him by being there in ten. She knocked, announcing her arrival, and peeked in with a rather innocent gaze. He set aside the large tome he had picked up and waited for her to make her way upstairs to him.

She approached him slowly, and quite timidly, which meant something was very wrong. She stopped being so reserved a long time ago.

"Have you spoken to the cooks, princess?" he asked, lifting his eyes to hers.

Asta frowned, leaning against the desk. "Yes, I told them," she mumbled. "They're making arrangements for him."

"Is that all?"

"Oh—I mean, no," she stammered. "I wanted to spend some time with you."

Kouen didn't trust her. "Sit."

She didn't. She crept up beside him and placed her hand atop his shoulder. She leaned down to find his mouth and he lifted his chin to meet her as she did, allowing her to kiss him. Brief as it was, he took it as a greeting.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I know."

She moved back, away from him. "And?"

"What?"

"What do you mean _what_?" she demanded.

She lost him. He arched an eyebrow, waiting on her to elaborate, but she only stared at him, as if in anticipation.

He didn't understand.

Asta's eyes filled with tears.

"Asta?"

She jerked away from him and ran down the stairs. She made it out the door, slamming the door behind her hard as she let out a very loud cry.

He leaned onto the arm of his chair and stared at the entrance downstairs blankly. He didn't understand why she made such a hasty retreat. He did invite her to sit.

He shrugged. She would tell him once she finished crying.

{ **iii** }

"I don't understand all this crying!" complained Lady Bo, wiping the snot from Asta's face with a handkerchief. "I thought you were only going out for flowers, Hua."

Hua jolted at the sound of her name and straightened her back. "We did—"

"Then what is the meaning of this?" asked her caretaker, pointing at Asta, who was barely keeping it together. "This is unsightly. Princesses do not cry!"

"I cry!" shouted Asta. She didn't care that she did. She was sad. She actually believed that she and Kouen made it through the worst part of their marriage and now lived happily in love. How wrong she had been in a world where confessing her love only warranted an _'I know.'_ What did she do wrong? Or rather, what did his concubine do right?

"Hua?"

"Well, we did go pick flowers, but her highness caught me in the middle of a game and—"

"A game?"

Asta cried harder at the reminder of the game. Recalling how many flowers she destroyed to attain the same answer again and again and again. It replayed in her head like a nightmare.

"The flower game," Hua said softly.

Lady Bo took Asta's chin in her firmly. "Listen to me, princess, you will stop your crying immediately," she ordered, "and understand that that flower game was simply that—a game. It is a game played by little girls that are too young to realize that none of it is real."

"B-But when I said I loved him, he said _I know_!" cried Asta.

Lady Bo was silent for a moment and then asked all of the attendants to exit the room. Once they did, she turned her attention fully to Asta.

"Arranged marriages rarely inspire love, but you, my dear naïve child have been blessed that our prince holds you in such high regard else he would have already found another woman to take your place."

Asta blinked up at her caretaker. She definitely understood the intent, but for some reason, that did not make her feel better. "W-What?"

"You are a grown woman, stop believing in silly flower games and go to sleep."

"That doesn't make me feel better!"

"Go to sleep, princess!"

Lady Bo abandoned her with only those words. She understood it was a game. What bothered her was that Kouen never said he loved her when she said it.

Asta crawled under the table with Joa, moving only a few feet from where she had been seated on the floor previously. She planned to find a better way to make him admit he didn't replace her with a concubine and that he loved her. After closing her eyes, she mulled over all the things she wanted to hear him say and slowly drifted off to sleep.

{ **iv** }

Kouen discovered Asta sleeping under the table with the cat upon entering their room. He dismissed his attendants, preferring to handle the situation without an audience. He left her there until he dressed into a sleeping robe, carrying her into bed. Joa followed them, hopping onto the red coverlet and burrowing underneath the blankets beside Asta. Kouen considered sleeping in his solar for a moment, but slid under the blankets beside her.

He had trouble sleeping, but did manage to do so. He woke in the middle of the night with Asta clinging to him, arms wrapped around his head and a leg on his stomach, and the cat on his face. He removed Joa from his face to its disdain and pried his wife off him, stuffing a pillow between them. She wrapped herself around it unconsciously, allowing him to breathe, but she was mumbling—chanting it seemed like. He narrowed his eyes and listened close to her grumbling, deciphering it after several minutes of her whimpering.

He heard her clearly after the third time she said it. " _He doesn't love me_."

He pinched her nose until she opened her mouth in complaint. "Joa." He released her, frowning, when she turned away from him, lying flat on her back with her face in the opposite direction. "I want…strawberry tarts, Lady Bo."

Exhausting as it was to wake up every morning with her wrapped around him like a boa constrictor, he didn't remember what it was like not to share a bed with his wife. Even without her present, he would wake up in the middle of the night expecting to find her clinging to him and would find himself wanting to feel the slight weight of her on him, the softness of her pale hair on his skin, and the faint scent of flowers and bath oils radiating from her body.

He had hated sleeping alone since.

Asta called his name.

Even though she talked in her sleep, had frequent nightmares, and drooled.

Kouen turned on his side, propping his upper body up with his elbow. He rested his cheek on his hand and stared at Asta's pale, freckled face. He definitely liked it better in Ione.

{ **v** }

Lady Bo woke Asta the following morning long after her husband had started his day. She rubbed her somnolent eyes, more interested in sleeping for another hour or two than trying to find something to do. Hua appeared in her periphery, drawing her attention from the morning-lit wall, and saw her setting a pot of red flowers on her table.

"Red flowers?" asked Asta curiously. She tended to lean towards white flowers when it came to decorating.

"Prince Kouen asked me to bring you flowers," said Hua, smiling secretly at her.

"He also asked that you be given this," added Lady Bo, opening a box before her eyes to display a gem-encrusted necklace.

Asta took it delightedly. "Is it mine? Really?"

"I do hope you stop doubting your importance," said Lady Bo. "Eat your breakfast first, and then go thank him properly for having to put up with you."

Lady Bo exited after Asta's breakfast was brought in, leaving only Hua in her company.

"He is very fond of you," said Hua, grinning. "You should be happy."

Asta was downright giddy, but came to a realization that drained the mirth from her. "Or maybe he thinks he can buy me with cheap flowers and a fake necklace?"

"Princess, no," Hua said, dismayed.

"Are you saying that's a lie? He probably thought I was acting suspicious yesterday and instead of talking it out with me, he decided to buy me happiness," ranted Asta. "Well, he needs to know that he can't do that! Hua, where is my husband?"

"Princess, a lot of thought—"

"Don't follow me, Hua, I know exactly where to go," announce Asta, grabbing a handful of flowers in one hand and snatching the necklace's box in the other. "Nobody is to disturb us!"

Asta confronted Kouen shortly inside her mother's library by setting the damaged flowers and the necklace in front of him. He sealed his book shut, lifting his eyes to her, very blasé and irritating of him.

"Are you trying to buy me?" asked Asta.

Kouen returned to his book, uninterested in whatever the conversation became.

"You are, aren't you?" she demanded.

"If you do not like your gifts, you can ask one of your guards to accompany you to the artisan province to find ones that you do," he answered.

"Why are you buying me gifts?"

He looked at her blankly.

"Why are you buying me gifts?" she repeated.

"I am well within my right to waste my money on whatever I see fit."

That wasn't an answer, but he did have a point. "Yes, but—"

"What is the problem?"

She bristled. "I think you are trying to make me happy with gifts because you don't know why I'm angry and that's not right. You can't buy me."

"Perhaps, I am trying to prompt you into starting a conversation you would not have otherwise," he replied, serious.

"What conversation?" she demanded, feeling her cheeks burn from the embarrassment.

"Stop being stupid, Astoria."

"You're doing this on purpose!"

"And if I am? What are you going to do? Dismantle more flowers? Cry?"

Asta's entire face turned a darker shade of red. She let rip a thousand curses in her head. He knew. He was doing it all on purpose.

Kouen pushed his seat back and rose. He took her firmly by the back of the neck, startling her. "Get it through that little brain of yours already, Astoria, you're the only woman I want." He tugged her into a kiss that made her knees weak. She needed to grab onto the desk behind her to stay on her feet. "Is that all?"

"Stop calling me Astoria," she said, breathless.

"Then stop acting foolish."

She frowned. "Fine."

"Keep your evening free," he told her, releasing her nape.

"Are we going somewhere?"

Kouen nodded, returning to his seat.

"Where? No—don't tell me. I want to be surprised." Asta turned away to leave, but moved back suddenly. She stepped closer to her husband, feeling her stomach knot as she leaned forward to kiss him. "Thank you."

She remembered to take her gifts on her way out.

Asta encountered Carina outside.

"It's kind of gross how happy you look right now," said Carina.

"Really?" asked Asta, cheeks flushed. She covered them.

"Look at you, you're practically glowing, wait—don't tell me you and the prince… _in there_?"

"We didn't!" cried Asta, catching her implication.

Carina grinned. " _Really_?"

"Don't tease me! Lady Bo!" called Asta, running off to find her caretaker. "Carina is being inappropriate!"

"Stop being so dramatic!" shouted Carina, chasing after her. "Don't tell Lady Bo! What are you five?"


	2. Sometimes, he hears her sadness

**Story** : Empress

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Kouen|Asta

 **Word Count** : 250

 **Rating** : T?

 **Author's Comment** : POV is suspect, but I'm thinking I'll come back after the 30 days are over to give them a better edit since I'm posting them as I finish them. Enjoy.

If you want to see any couple or character in certain situations from this story, let me know. I'm taking suggestions! If I feel inspired by a suggestion or feel that I can make it work, I'll write them!

 _ **Originally posted on November 21, 2017 for 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on at my wordpress, linked available in my profile, or read the vague explanation under the announcements header on my profile page.**_

* * *

 **Sometimes, he hears her sadness.**

Asta never heard Kouen enter. She sat silent in the window's alcove, tears dried on her cheeks, watching the rain soak and rattle the windowpane. She shivered as if she held the freezing rainwater in her bloodstream, dressed in little else but a shift that hung loose around her shoulders.

Kouen draped a woolen blanket on her and her eyes finally met his. She jumped into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist, and she kissed him hard. He tasted the salted loneliness on her lips and wished he could offer her the security she needed to endure the distance between them.

She couldn't leave Ione and he could not stay. She waited for signs of his arrival and he counted down days. Time together slipped between his fingers like sand, ever second counted. Six hundred four thousand eight hundred seconds were never enough, but he accepted them. He would never hold his hand out to her and ask her to journey with him.

"Let me be with you," Asta whispered, breath warm against his lips. Fresh tears sprung into her eyes as he hoisted her up, elevating her so she looked down at him, and felt the first of her tears land on his chin, drawing a trail down his neck. "Take me with you when you go."

The hand he placed on the small of her back crumpled the flimsy shift covering her tremulous body and he felt the promise on his tongue. "Ione needs you here."


	3. Ghost

**Story** : Empress

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): None

 **Word Count** : 100

 **Rating** : K

 **Author's Comment** : Context: Empress 15, Nightmare Trail 2, Asta's last memory. Enjoy.

There's also a poll up on my profile, so check it out!

If you want to see any couple or character in certain situations from this story, let me know. I'm taking suggestions! If I feel inspired by a suggestion or feel that I can make it work, I'll write them!

 _ **Originally posted on December 6, 2017 for 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on at my wordpress, linked available in my profile, or read the vague explanation under the announcements header on my profile page.**_

* * *

 **Ghost**

Kouen entered the palace library past midnight unable to sleep. Although, he had been assured plenty of times before, he hesitated at the door, prepared to be questioned. He lit two candles at a desk and walked to his favorite shelves to sort through the scrolls he set aside for reading.

As he gathered them, he paused, turning toward the sound of footsteps emerging from deep within the library until a young woman appeared in his line of sight. Blond and blue eyed in a white dress. Her gaze went directly to him and he frowned, standing.

"Who are you?"


	4. Afterhours

**Story** : Empress

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Kouen|Asta

 **Word Count** : 100

 **Rating** : T

 **Author's Comment** : I want more domestic stuff.

 _ **Originally posted on December 11, 2017 for 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on at my wordpress, linked available in my profile, or read the vague explanation under the announcements header on my profile page.**_

* * *

 **Afterhours**

Asta leaned over Kouen and wrapped her arms around his neck. His shoulders relaxed as he reclined back, his face turning in her direction, and their cheeks brushed.

"What did you think of me?" she asked.

"What do you want to hear?"

She drew away, walking around his seat to lean into the desk. She smiled. "That's a smart answer."

He reached out for her hand and pulled her closer. She turned to sit on his lap, the candles on his desk bathing them in light.

"Don't you want to ask me the same question?"

"What do you think now?"


	5. The Heir

**Story** : Empress

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Kouen|Asta

 **Word Count** : 100

 **Rating** : T

 **Author's Comment** : And this is Day 30! I'm done! Now, back to devoting time to actual stories! :D

Given that this is the last contribution to the 30DoSF for this story, I'm going to be marking this story as "Completed." That said, feel free to continue to follow it for possible future updates.

 _ **Originally posted on December 19, 2017 for 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on at my wordpress, linked available in my profile, or read the vague explanation under the announcements header on my profile page.**_

* * *

 **The Heir**

Kouen notices Asta wince when he enters their room. Their child grows slowly in her womb and she watches over silently

She smiles at him. "The baby startled me. It's moving. Come here."

Asta takes his hand and presses it gently against her belly, adjusting the placement until he feels the child strain against her skin. The smile that curves his lips surprises him. He holds her close, kissing the top of her head, almost reassuringly. He knows that she's afraid. Nothing will take that fear away from her but the security that it all works out. It will.

Eventually.


	6. Death in the Water

**Story** : Empress

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Kouen/Asta

 **Word Count** : 643

 **Author's Comment** : I am weak to Kouen and Asta sitting around in candlelight.

 _ **Originally posted on December 1, 2018 for my 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on my WordPress, xlilim – link available in my profile.**_

 _ **I am taking suggestions! If you want to see any couple or character from the story in certain situations, let me know. If I feel inspired by the idea, I will write them! You can PM me, leave a review, or comment on the 30DoSF WordPress page.**_

* * *

 _Death in the Water_

"Before the Commoner's Revolt." Asta pauses, but her voice lingers as the candles burn around them, their glow reaching the edges of their bed. "Not long after my dreams began, I used to close my eyes at night and wake in the shore of a vast black sea full of lights."

She sits between Kouen's legs, straddling the fine line between lucidity and bewilderment. Her short, pale eyebrows wrinkled and her eyes distant that if he were to peer inside, he would see millions of lights reflected in their blue hue, bobbing like orbs out at sea. Her back warms his clothed chest and his arms encircle her, her skin hot in the places where their flesh meets.

"In Ione, only the wealthy can afford a ship burial, so, for the longest time, I felt it was an ill-omen for the noble realm. Even when I didn't understand it." She looks up at him, through her pale lashes, the seam of her pink lips starting to come apart once more to continue. "I ran around the castle collecting as much paper as I could and wrote a list of all the noble houses I could remember. I had to get help with individual names. I even had it cross-checked once I finished."

The tiny smile that curves the edges of her lips elated him. She reminisces and grows distant. She returns to wherever or whenever she speaks of. He imagines her as a child padding across the cold halls of Io Castle as their child had before in wonderment—discovering new places to sneak into and hide while the panicked retainers called out frantically, their voices echoing through the palace.

Kouen brushes a hand over the top of her head and she sighs. "I tried to send out warnings to everyone, but I remember that day very clearly because it was one of the only times that I remember my mother being out of the tower. She grabbed hold of me and told me that it was just a dream. All of it was _just_ a dream. It meant nothing. And she held me firmly." She wraps her arms around herself to take her upper arms into her hands, her grip tight enough to whiten her knuckles. "I saw the red in her eyes—the strain in them. Just a dream. But there was death on the water." She pauses and swallows audibly. "I returned to the shore, each time closer to where the water kissed the sand, until I was ankle deep in it and watching these ships move further away."

"How does a mother explain that much death to a child? How would you?" Kouen asks, reaching for her hand to twine their fingers together.

She shrugs. Pauses. She drinks from the silver goblet in her hand and her lips glisten from the sweet mead that hydrates her parched throat.

He tilts her head back and kisses her, drinks from her. Tastes the sour blackberry in the liquor. He lingers above her mouth like the sweet aftertaste of her mead.

It takes her a moment to recover from the distraction, but manages with his encouragement. "What happened after?"

Her goblet sits empty in her hand as she faces forward.

"They were floating lights on the water. I used to scream my throat raw on the shore until the sea threatened to take me. It pulled me under, the currents wrapped around me, and the water filled my lungs. I woke up several nights coughing out black water. The more I dreamt the dream, the more people I recognized and the more that happened, the more I wanted to drown in the waters."

He breathes her in as he wraps his arms around her, holding her close. "Why?"

"I thought I could save them that way. That that was my special power."


	7. Unrest

**Story** : Empress

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Kouen/Asta

 **Word Count** : 566

 **Author's Comment** : This here is a gender/name reveal party, so watch out for those spoilers. If you don't want to know, turn back now! Or, you could treat this as a "what if" story. I mean, for the most part, it sort of is.

This short piece comes from a suggestion made by **Alice-Tozen** who wanted just Kouen being a dad. Hopefully, this is just a taste and there will be more to come.

 _ **Originally posted on December 9, 2018 for my 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on my WordPress, xlilim – link available in my profile.**_

 _ **I am taking suggestions! If you want to see any couple or character from the story in certain situations, let me know. If I feel inspired by the idea, I will write them! You can PM me, leave a review, or comment on the 30DoSF WordPress page.**_

* * *

 _Unrest_

Asta is always very quiet at night when their child begins to fuss and she steals him away outside, swathed in warm blankets, where she tells him stories of long ago under a sky bright with stars. She does it for Kouen's sake, even when it is clear that their child's cries have woken him and that he moves to relieve her, but she tenderly touches his face, kissing him above the eye.

"Rest," she whispers. "Your body needs rest, my love."

It has taken him time to adjust, but he is capable. His body has rested for so long that he cannot stand it at times, but there are times it disobeys him. Most times, it is the stiffness of his limbs that prevents this, so he lets her go. He rarely insists.

Tonight, Asta sleeps through the baby's first cry and Kouen makes it to him before his next. The boy fusses, his small hands balled into fists, and his eyes squeezed tight. His mouth opens as he starts to whine, struggling against the thick blankets wrapped around him.

Kouen leans in over the bedding and picks him up, cradling his head as he draws him into his arms. He sits with him, resting his small body on his lap as the baby continues to fuss, not crying aloud, but making sounds to express a discomfort he doesn't understand as Kouen attempts to soothe him.

He likes to look at him when he is unable to find the soothing words Asta speaks to him. He is round-faced with short strawberry-blond hair and has his mother's blue-hued eyes. He admits to himself as he had once before let Asta know that he never imagined a family for himself. He didn't think he would be a father. He never saw that life ahead of him. His future involved wars and winning them. Nowhere in the cruelty of that reality did he anticipate the joy that came from their growing family.

Asta had smiled gently and held his hand to the swell of her belly as the baby kicked. " _Sometimes, things don't go the way we think they will, so we get some nice surprises along the way. Good ones like this, right?"_

Kouen leans back and rests the child over his chest. He alternates between patting and rubbing his back until his soft cries turn into hiccups.

"There, there, Tyr," he whispers, looking down at his face, his pale narrow eyebrows relax as he succumbs to sleep. Rain pitter-patters against the windows and Kouen smiles. He's a lot like his mother.

He stays with him until his breathing evens out and Kouen dozes off with him.

Asta gently draws Kouen out of sleep and she helps him up, taking Tyr when he hands him to her.

"Why didn't you wake me?" asks Asta.

Kouen keeps his arm draped over her shoulders and pulls her close, kissing her forehead. "You were up all day yesterday, you needed to sleep," he says, then runs a hand over the back of Tyr's small head, his short hair soft underneath his palm. "Tyr is almost as restless as you are during the rainy seasons."

"Can he inherit something like that?" she questions, peering down at the babe suckling on his fist.

"Most likely not," he says.

"I'd be grateful if he had better sleep that either of us these days."

* * *

* Tyr would be pronounced either too-eer or toy-eer. I'm going for more of an Icelandic pronunciation for the name, so it sounds a bit like there is a y after the "too".


	8. A Surprise for the Prince

**Story** : Empress

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Melik/Ilya

 **Word Count** : 100

 **Author's Comment** : A drabble for my favorite princes.

 _ **Originally posted on December 18, 2018 for my 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on my WordPress, xlilim – link available in my profile.**_

 _ **I am taking suggestions! If you want to see any couple or character from the story in certain situations, let me know. If I feel inspired by the idea, I will write them! You can PM me, leave a review, or comment on the 30DoSF WordPress page.**_

* * *

 _A Surprise for the Prince_

Ilya leaves a tiny box among a mountain of Melik's gifts and with it the hope that it is the last thing he opens as he walks away from the noisy festivities in the Grand Hall. He sits outside in the cool evening air and looks upward into the starless sky. It took him too long to pick something out and it bothered him still that the ruby ring with the obsidian band was too much for gaudy prince. He wore gold and bright jewels, everything bright. He was shining light, yet Ilya wished to trap him in his shadow.


	9. Reach

**Story** : Empress

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Kouen/Asta

 **Word Count** : 147

 **Author's Comment** : This is short. I wish I had the time to make it a little longer. Consider this a "what if" situation.

This was a suggestion from **h0b1z**.

 _ **Originally posted on December 18, 2018 for my 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on my WordPress, xlilim – link available in my profile.**_

* * *

 _Reach_

Kouen thinks of Asta as soon as his metal vessels are returned and it fuels his journey to Ione. He wants to reach her, grab hold of her wherever she stands, and hold on until the nightmare is over, until they have found a way to solve things. She isn't affected. It is his hope, but it is immediately dashed when he sees her, standing before a tall window, the sunlight wrapped around her and glittering in her golden crown.

She runs to him, wraps her arms around him, and nearly knocks him off his feet. She kisses him, her eyes are wide, bouncing with energy. "I knew you'd come," she whispers. "We can go together."

"Go together?" he repeats, dread spreading across his tongue like an acidic fruit.

"Yes, we can go back to the rukh. Together."

He stands back. No. This was not his queen.


End file.
